Obscure Maori Taiwan Connection Pops up in Trade Pact

A maori warrior plays the Pukaea ( Maori trumpet) at the Auckland War Memorial Museum on April 25, 2013 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Associated Press

Then Chinese Vice President (and current President) Xi Jinping, right, receives hongi (touching noses) greeting during a traditional Maori welcome upon arrival at Government House in Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday, June 17, 2010.

Taiwan this week signed its first free-trade agreement with a developed economy, New Zealand, but it seems the two territories have more in common than a yearning for closer economic ties.

Anyone casually browsing the details of the pact may wonder why a clause in the contract calls specifically for steps to foster links between the indigenous people of both islands. The reason, apparently, is that they are distant relatives.

The reference to their shared history in the trade pact is the first time officials of the South Pacific nation have included such a clause.

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“This is the first such agreement which incorporates a chapter on indigenous cooperation,” said New Zealand’s trade minister, Tim Groser. “It draws on the unique connections between Maori and the indigenous people of Chinese Taipei.”

According to the mythology of New Zealand’s first people, the Maori, their ancestors hailed from a place called Hawaiki, which doesn’t appear on any map.

However, researchers at Wellington’s Victoria University using DNA samples and computer simulation more recently claimed that the Maori arrived in New Zealand after island-hopping across the 5,700 miles of sea between Taiwan and New Zealand around 700 years ago.

The trade deal was signed Wednesday in a low-key affair designed to avoid provoking China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory. It envisages removing all trade barriers by about 2025, and near-term tariff concessions on New Zealand’s agricultural and Taiwanese electronics exports.

But beyond the discussion on tariffs, the agreement invokes the shared history of the two economies, and sets out guidelines for strengthening ties between New Zealand’s Ministry of Maori Development and Taiwan’s Council of Indigenous Peoples.

There are references, as well, to closer links among academic and tribal bodies on both sides and stronger relationships between importers and exporters of Maori and Taiwanese aboriginal goods.

“They (indigenous Taiwanese) see in Maori a number of models for things they would like to do themselves, so there is both an economic as well as a cultural interest on both sides,” said Stephen Payton, Taipei-based director at New Zealand’s Commerce and Industry Office, a government body that functions like an embassy.

There are some 565,329 Maori in New Zealand, about 10% of the population, who preceded the first European settlers on the island. There are various outlets for Maori culture in the country, including an own-language television station, and schools and universities designed for indigenous people.

Taiwanese aboriginal people account for about 2% of the population, and the government is taking steps to help revive their traditions. Aroha Mead, director of the Maori Business School at Victoria University, said there had been contact between the indigenous people of both territories for more than 10 years.

“It might have started out that Maori had more to offer the Taiwanese indigenous but it’s probably 50/50 now because they’ve moved ahead quite significantly in their political movements,” said Ms. Mead.

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